In Germany, legacy of Stasi puts different perspective on NSA spying

BERLIN — German officials have
been quick to ascribe the fury of their citizens over U.S. spying to
their own history with the excesses of the surveillance state. But
victims of the fearsome Communist East German secret police say: Not so
fast.

Allegations that the National Security Agency kept tabs on Chancellor Angela Merkel’s cellphone communications have
threatened counterterrorism cooperation, a major trade deal and good
relations between the longtime allies. Popular distrust of the United
States also is widespread.

Officials say Germans are sensitive about the issue because their
society is still grappling with East Germany’s Orwellian spying
apparatus, which was dismantled upon German reunification in 1990 but
whose corrosive effects continue to eat at people’s lives....